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Light Speed Ideas 41 – 43

Stuffing the Goose is a technical education term. What it refers to is two situations. First, it means adding as much or more content as you possibly can. You don’t want to leave anything out. When you review the design, everyone wants to add things until you have no time to actually work on anything. Second, it happens when you bring people in for something like three days. The thinking is, “since we have you here, let’s cover everything.” How can we put two weeks of content into one week? This is a natural tendency. It’s hard to fight. But some of the worst education and training has been stuffed. So focus on your objectives and tell others to stop stuffing the goose.

The best alternative to teach topic by topic is to teach by task or outcome.Once you have a list of all the task or outcomes you want to teach, put them in order from simple to complex or easy to hard.Now teach them one by one.Then require a set level of proficiency before moving on. This builds the integration of skills and knowledge plus allowing you to add in real life practice.

Seeing things from your own point of view is very limiting.You see only a part of the picture.Activities that require students to see things from other people’s point of view give deeper understanding.Something as simple as a debate where you take one side and then the other gives works well.Playing the role of a customer or supplier works too.Then have students stand back and look at the big picture to see how everyone relates and interacts

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This blog is focused on anything related to learning faster. From time to time, I'll be posting about my book Learning Paths: Increase profits by reducing the time it takes to get up-to-speed (Pfeiffer 2004).
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